Thank's Stefan, I will upgrade our wiki farm to the latest mediawiki and let you know if that helps. We have 1.12rc1 I believe.
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 7:11 AM, Skoffer.com Team <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Brian, > > thank you very much for the detailed information. > Bad to hear that it did not work for you like said. > > > I tried Skoffer on Windows, Mac and Linux and so far it is only usable on > > Windows. This makes it unsuitable for user in our lab, which consists > mostly > > of Mac and Linux users. Here are my bugs and notes: > > > > > I'm confused over most of your point because I considered all well tested. > And since it should be a cross platform solution it was tested on > Windows, Mac and Linux with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, > etc. with Sun Java, OpenJDK etc. > In the first 24 hours after releasing Skoffer.com and the plugins I have > seen more than 100 screencasts by my self and got a lot of mails saying > that it works great. > > *General issues* > > > > - Special:Version does not work with the extension installed. It's > just > > blank. > > > That's weird because I would not expect the few functions in the plugin > to cause that. > The plugin is installed on MediaWiki based > http://www.skoffer.com/Special:Version too, which work. > Could you please tell me your MediaWiki's version number? > > > - I notice in the screencast of Skoffer that you close the > > 'screen-recorder initiator' popup as it is only used for launching. > This > > should happen automatically. Get rid of as many steps as possible. > > > I do not close it- I minimize it. The applet runs in this popup, if it's > closed the applet closes too. > If you want to know what's the popup for you can read the commented code > example at http://www.skoffer.com/Php_api_example > > - You have to grant Skoffer special java permission to use the /tmp > > directory, and the only thing written there is /tmp/cache/http/ > > api.skoffer.com/v1/{skoffer.jar<http://api.skoffer.com/v1/%7Bskoffer.jar> > <http://api.skoffer.com/v1/%7Bskoffer.jar>, > > skoffer.jar.info}. This looks avoidable and should be avoided if > > possible. > > > The Java permissions are needed to be able to take screenshots of the PC > screen (Java class "java.awt.Robot"), which is oviously needed. > This is not possible with an applet that runs in the normal Java sandbox. > The operating system's tmp folder is used to store the recorded video > and audio if needed (some PCs dont't have much RAM). > > - The general method of inserting the <skoffer> tag into the page does > > not work across platforms and browsers. Some other way must be found. > > > Again, weird, since it was tested with all major browsers. (but this > point and the two after the next are caused by the same issue) > > - Integration with mediawiki is poor and the interface lacks basic > > features, such as the ability to download the movie, or embed it in > another > > site. > > > The goal was to be able to record and insert screencasts as easy as > possible. The plugin was not designed for the tasks you mentioned. > It is a basic implementation of the simple Skoffer "API" from > http://www.skoffer.com/The_skoffer_api (on this page you can find infos > how to embed the screencasts in other sites, if wanted). > > > - Regarding "This screencast will be available shortly," how long is > > "shortly," and how will the user know when it is now available? They > have to > > continue refreshing the page? For how long? > > > This time should be round about as long as the screencasts lasts. A > screencast that's a few seconds short should be ready in seconds. > > *Linux - *Ubuntu Inrepid Ibex with Firefox 3.0.4 and Java 1.6.0 - Core 2 > duo > > @ 3GHz w/ 8GB ram > > > > - I get to "Uploading your screencast", it spins for a minute, and > then > > all evidence of Skoffer goes away. It does not insert anything into > the edit > > box > > > That's because of the issue below. > > - If I leave the 'screen-recorder initiator' popup, after the > "Uploading > > your screencast" popup goes away, this popup gets redirected to ' > > mydomain.com/extensions/skoffer/<insert 3-4 random unicode > characters>', > > which is naturally a 404 error. The characters are different every > time. > > bizarre. > > > The popup 'screen-recorder initiator' is loaded from > http://domain.tld/extensions/skoffer/skoffer_insert.php?new > When the "skoffer_insert.php" is started without the GET variable > "skofferid" it starts the Java applet ( the screen recorder). The Java > applet checks from which URL it was started and redirects the user to > this address > + "&skofferid=<screencast ID> after saving the screencast. Now the > "skoffer_insert.php" is loaded with the GET variable "skofferid" (for > example > > http://domain.tld/extensions/skoffer/skoffer_insert.php?new&skofferid=123456789 > ) > and inserts the ID to the text form (in this example it would insert > <skoffer>123456789</skoffer>). This is explained at > http://www.skoffer.com/Php_api_example , too, if you are interested. > > You said the popup gets a 404 error because it trys to load > http://mydomain.com/extensions/skoffer/<insert 3-4 random unicode > characters> > I'm confused about the 3-4 unicode characters (if it were 32, then it > could be the video ID). > If you can do more tests with the new information (which I wrote above) > it would be great. I guess the the applet is not able to detect on which > URL it is loaded and forwards the popup to the wrong URL (like you said: > a 404 error) > > > - If I click 'Finish this screencast' before 'Pause recording' then > the > > recording timer keeps counting. Small things like this are very > confusing to > > users. > > > This is not the normal behaviour of the applet. It seems the applet did > not run correctly after an exception. Please clear your Java cache, and > close all browsers. Please test it only in one instance at once (not in > two browsers on the same machine). After an error please restart the > browser and clear the browser's and Java's cache. You can see in the > Java console if the applet outputs exceptions. > The issue with the time shows that there was an exception, which could > have caused the issue that the applet was not able to redirect the popup > correctly, too. > > - There are several windows that show up in my linux taskbar that are > > apparantly used to draw the recording interface. Can't these be > consolidated > > into one? > > > This aesthetic thing will maybe changed in a newer version of the screen > recorder, because you are right it's confusing, even it does not impact > the screencast recording process per se. > > *Mac - *OSX Leopard with Safari 3.1.2 and Java 1.5 - Core 2 duo @ 3GHz w/ > > 4GB ram > > > > - The <skoffer> tags are only inserted into the textarea if I bring it > > into focus with my mouse after telling it to upload the screencast. If > I > > don't click in the edit box, the behavior is just like linux, e.g., it > > doesn't work at all. > > - I was never able to get it to insert the <skoffer> tags again > after > > this attempt > > - The red line you are supposed to move your mouse over is totally > > occluded by the main OSX navigation bar which resides at the top of > the > > screen. I found this feature to be very confusing and suggest it be > dropped. > > I suggest making the only way to stop a recording be to click the > finish > > recording button. > > > > > You are right. OSX seems to cover the red line which can be used stop > the recording. Thanks. > Maybe the red line is moved to the left or right side instead of the > top. The ability to stop the recording with the red line instead of a > button is considered helpful because the red line is not visible in the > resulting screencast. > A button to stop the fullscreen recording would be visible during the > whole screencast. > > > Windows - Windows XP with Internet Explorer 8 beta - P4 @ 3GHz w/ 512MB > ram > > > > - It appeared to work as advertised, but I don't know how long the > "This > > screencast will be available shortly" screen will be up. I still > haven't > > seen an actual recorded video. > > > > > The "This screencast will be available shorty" message is actually a flv > file which is placed at the screencasts URL in the moment where the > encoding process starts (that the user knows that the screencasts was > send correctly). Maybe your browser doen´t check on a page refresh if > the flv video file changed (and displays a cached version). > > I think Skoffer is close to being usable, but right now it is a > Windows-only > > app and I don't know anyone who uses Windows. I just tried it on my > > development Windows machine to check. > > > I will check. I successfully tested it on Ubuntu and Xubuntu where I > added Java support to Firefox with > > "sudo apt-get install sun-java5-plugin" > or > "sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin" > > Cheers, > > Brian > > > > > Thanks, Stefan > > _______________________________________________ > MediaWiki-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > -- (Not sent from my iPhone) _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
